My addiction to the Dodgers and baseball. I love Our Lady of Chavez Ravine (OLOCR) Dodger Stadium. If you come to Dodger Stadium, I'd love to show you around.SABR & Baseball Reliquary member

A Salute to Dodger fans in the latest Dodgers Magazine

The following is the copy of the latest Dodger Magazine:

In it, it shows Dodger fans that have had their season tickets for 30 years or more. Although I started 30 years ago as a season ticket holder, my total years do not equal that. I do have friends in that picture.

The September magazine saluted us fans as the 10th player! Is nice to have a magazine dedicated to us fans. In addition to a salute to the long time season ticket holders, the Dodgers took the time to interview a lot of Dodger fans for the magazine like the Aisle 2 Crew in the Reserved and yours truly.

Jorge Martin approached me in the last Viva Los Dodgers event when he spotted me wearing a Javy Guerra batting practice jersey. I had spotted the jersey in the club level and although it fits me big, I just had to buy it. Here is the article in the magazine with the pictures

WHEN EMMA AMAYA calls Dodger Stadium “my second home, my second family,” she’s not kidding. Amaya is a fixture in the Top Deck in her season seats, but when the Dodgers are away from home or out of season, her passion for the team remains strong.

She Flew to Minnesota this year to catch the Dodgers during an interleague series. She is a regular at autograph signings around the southland. Often camping out for hours to assure herself a great spot. She even visited Citi Field in New York to see the Brooklyn Dodgers memorabilia, especially the Jackie Robinson exhibit. Amaya even gave Dodger Reliever Javy Guerra a book about the history of Mexican baseball players who have played in Los Angeles, something that Guerra had started to read.

You see, Amaya takes this “Dodger family” stuff really seriously. Amaya said she grew up a football fan. A boyfriend took her to Dodger Stadium one time and she was hooked. Before long Amaya began coming regularly to games with a friend who educated her on the Brooklyn Dodgers, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Now it’s her doing the educating. During the Brooklyn days, the biggest superfan was Hilda Chester. Chester was a regular at Ebbets Field, but achieved fame by banging a frying pan with an iron ladle from her seat in the bleachers. people took notice.

(Left) Amaya posed with Duke Snider’s half of Fame plaque.

Emma & Eric as Hilda Chester and the Brooklyn Bum

Including Dodger players who in the 1930’s presented her with a cowbell. After suffering a second heart attach, it is said that former Dodger manager Leo Durocher visited her in the hospital. She returned to the bleaches with her Brooklyn accent and cowbell to cheer sounding as strong as ever. A sign near her seat would proclaim, “Hilda is Here!”

Amaya doesn’t fashion herself exactly as a 21st Century Hilda Chester, but she did come to Opening Day last season dressed as the legendary fan. a curious usher asked about her costume.

“Look her up,” Amaya told the usher. “When I come here tomorrow, you tell me something that tells me you did look it up.”

The Next Day, the usher saw Amaya and yelled out one of Chester’s favorite lines, “EAT YOUR HEART OUT, YOU BUMS!”

Amaya speaks affectionately and nostalgically about the Dodgers, pointing out that the first year that she had season tickets was 1981–The year of Fernandomania and the World Series against the New York Yankees. A computer programmer from El Monte, Amaya has also helped build communities both in and around Dodger Stadium. sh has developed bonds with Dodger fans on Twitter and the regulars at her Top Deck seats at Dodger Stadium, and has even gone to Dodger related events with the people she sits with at games.

One of those events led to a memorable exchange with a Dodger player. After Matt Kemp hit a 10th inning walk-off single on August 12, Amaya and a friend immediately left from Dodger Stadium and headed down to Redondo Beach. They They camped out outside of a store where Kemp was to sign autographs the following morning. amaya finally made her way to the front of the line and met Kemp, who after hearing about her coming striahgt from the game asked Amaya, “Did you eat?”

Kemp might have been thinking about theat interaction when he did another autograph signing on Aug. 26. On that day, Kemp ordered pizza for everyone in line.

Amaya smiles easily when she talks about the team she has pent more than three decades following closely. she summed up so much of what keeps brning her back day after day, year after year when she said: “I love watching a triple, I love watching a pitcher’s duel. I love watching a well-executed double play. I love the game, and I love the Dodgers”

Thank you Dodgers! Thank you Jorge Martin & Cary Osborne and all that contributed to the article. I am humble by it all.

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24 Comments

Emma I still get a chuckle out of the Hilda costume. Who would of thought such a woman could inspire so much crowd happiness from a simple Cowbell….Well, Rays fans are indebted to her for sure.
Great article, and I am so glad the Dodgers gave you some extra “Blue love” with that spread. Wild how fast the season flys by and then we have to say our goodbyes and hope the same guys stroll into the clubhouse in March.
But I know not matter what, you and the fellow followers of the Dodger Blue will be there again next year…ready for another 81 game ( or longer) stroll through history.

You go, Emma! Hot dang! That’s a great article! And to be in the upper echelon of Dodger fans? Well, that’s just plain impressive. (PS, What an entertaining game last night! Kershaw v. Parra? Can’t wait for the next round!)
–Jeff

Rays,
You and I are hard that yes come Spring we will be there for another 81 games. Sad that is almost over so I am enjoying the last games fully. Also going to San Diego for the three game weekend game there starting 9/23.
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Toosoxy, Yeah that was nice whoever came out with the idea of the Dodger magazine cover. First time that they do that. The forming of the LA came from one of the fans as the posed for the first picture. It came out nice!
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thanks Jeff. Yeah, last night’s game was very entertainment but the umps over reacted. Kershaw barely touched Parra with that ball. lol about the next round.

Thank you so much Kristen. You are so sweet. Ahhh, yeah Matt Kemp is a sweetie. He and Kershaw and Javy. Everyone was saying the same that the ump was waaaay to strict. Luckly NMB saw that and they do not suspend Kershaw. He was nominated for the Roberto Clemente award.

Hi Emma,
This is a great article about a great Dodger fan. Congratulations!
Congrats also on being #27 in the August list of blogs. I did not make Outside the Dodgers a part of the MLBlogs family so I don’t know how I would have fared on that list. In August, OTD had 9,376 page views, an average of 302 per day. It would be interesting to see where that blog would place on the list. What was your number for August?

Thanks Brian!
Hey! I was surprised I got #27 on the August list. I got #22 in the July, another surprise. Bet you would shoot to top 10 or 5 if you did make it MLB. You could take over #1. Oh, I imagine my numbers are very low. Have not posted as often. I have some restrictions at work so can’t do that and between work and home game and away games, well not much time.
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I am going to San Diego for the three game series and of course I will be at Dodger Stadium for the final three. Looking forward to Tuesday with Kershaw and Lincecum.
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Have no idea what my numbers are

Don’t you have a stats link when you are logged in to WordPress? Do you have a dashboard on you blog? The stats can also be found there. To find the August totals, click on Summary. On my WordPress dashboard, there is a link for Appearance, then Widgets. That is where you can move stuff like links to the side of your blog.

Brian,
I am having a hard time loggin on to WordPress. Another reason why I have not updated my blog and another is time! Maybe on the train to SD tomorrow I can go back to that.
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Evan! Long time no see you! I have not made it to SF since….I think since the All-Star game there. Was so tempted to hop on a plane just to go see Kershaw there last time. thank you so much! Love your blog! Looking forward to seeing Tommy in uni tonight on his bday. I would think he will wear the uniform. I’ll take pictures if I can.

Virginia,
Yeah, I should be blogging in the offseason. I am currently in NH working here this week but I’ll get back to blogging. I’ll go back to your blog and ask you what did you think of Javy Guerra. He is a cutie.

Emma, I don’t comment much but I’ve been a closet reader of your blog for a while now. Loved the article about you and love your enthusiasm and dedication to your team. I may be out your way in the next season or two, if so I’m gonna hit you up for that tour. Keep up the great work…D

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